Las Posadas and the Christmas Novena

Tonight is the start of Las Posadas, a nine-day Mexican celebration that begins on December 16 each year. Posadas is Spanish for "lodging", and the nine days represent the nine months of Mary's pregnancy. In Mexico, people gather tonight and carry candles and clay figures of Mary and Joseph from house to house, reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for a room at an inn. They are turned away again and again with a rude “No!” Finally, one house allows them to enter, and everyone celebrates with food and a piñata. The procession is repeated each night through Christmas Eve, ending with a party at a different house.

Tonight is also the start of the Christmas Novena in Italy. A Novena is a Catholic ritual, a prayer repeated daily for nine days. It can take place at any time of the year, but one of the most observed is the Christmas Novena, recited or sung during the nine days leading up to Christmas day. Las Posadas comes from that same tradition.

Agenda:

1. Read a novena

2. Set out our crèche

3. Make cucidati (Italian fig cookies)

4. Plan a piñata party!

1. Read a novena:
One year I was searching through traditional and alternate novenas and found this Creation Novena at the Indian Catholic Matters site, my favorite of all:

Day 1: A Prayer for All Creation

Creator God, as we prepare for the coming of Your Son, we give thanks for the gift of creation. We give thanks for its beauty and the joy the beauty brings us. We give thanks for light that shines in the darkness, for the stars and the sun, for the air we breathe and the plants and animals that you have created, for earth and water, and for the daily sustenance we draw from them. Inspire us to see You, Creator, through all that You have created—all that you look upon as very good. Help us to care for creation as You instructed us. Help us be stewards of its abundant life. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

2. Set out our crèche:

Traditionally, it was St. Francis of Assisi who made the first crèche, in honor of animals who shared the stable with the baby Jesus. 

We made Mary and Joseph with fabric and glue when my kids were very young. The donkey and bird are polymer clay, and the manger is balsa wood. This year we added a plastic toy pig, cow, goose, duck, and giraffe.

3. Make cucidati (Italian fig cookies):
These are traditional Sicilian Christmas cookies with figs, raisins, honey, and cinnamon, with the not so traditional addition of chocolate! The name means "little bracelets", which describes the shape most common for Christmas, but they also make delicious regular fig bars.

Ingredients:

• 1/6-c. sugar
• 1/4-c. butter
• 1-1/8 c. all-purpose flour
• 3/4-tsp. baking powder
• 1/8-tsp. salt
• 1/4-c. cold water

Filling:

• 3/4 c. dried figs
• 3/4 c. raisins
• 1 c. walnuts
• 1/8 c. chocolate chips
• 1/4-c. honey
• 1/8-c. orange marmalade
• 1/4-Tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• powdered sugar and milk for glaze
• multi-coloured sprinkles

Makes 20 fig bars, or 30 smaller cookies-

1- Beat together the sugar and butter in a mixing bowl, and add 1 c. flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix, adding water gradually, until ingredients hold together. If the dough is sticky, add the remaining 1/8 c. flour.

2- Put the dough on a lightly floured board and knead for a
minute, until smooth and elastic. Divide into 2 parts, and shape each piece into a disc. Put into a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

3- Remove the stems from the dried figs and snip into smaller pieces. 

Blend up the raisins, figs, chocolate chips, and walnuts into a fine grainy meal in a food processor or blender.

4- Add the honey, marmalade, cinnamon, and lemon juice and mix with an electric mixer until it comes together into a paste. Scrape the filling into a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use.

5- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

6- Bring out the dough and divide one disc into 2 pieces. Roll out these first 2 pieces of dough on a lightly floured board. Use a knife to trim them to form two 2x14-inch rectangles.

7- Scoop out about 1/2 of the filling and use floured hands to roll it into two 14-inch logs. Place the fig logs in the center of the dough rectangles.

8- Carefully fold over the long edges of each rectangle to meet in the center (the dough is stretchy- just pull until it meets), then pinch the seam to close it securely, and turn the log seam-side down. Cut each log into about 9 little tubes. 

9- Use scissors to make 3 small snips in the side of each tube, bend a little, and place onto the cookie sheet.

To make regular fig bars, roll one of the disks of dough into a 16 x 4-inch rectangle, fill, and cut the cookies into short sections. 

9- Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

10- Make a glaze: Stir together powdered sugar and a little milk until smooth. Dip the top of each cookie in the glaze and sprinkle with colored sprinkles.

4. Plan a Piñata party:

This is the third year we will have a piñata party with our grandsons. 

Two year's ago year my first grandson and I made a small piñata, which he rolled around the house for a week, then we broke it in the back yard. I was worried he wouldn't want to break his "ball," but he LOVED it!

The ancient Aztecs had something like a piñata: When they celebrated the birth of their god Huitzilopochtli (weetz-ill-oh-PACHT-lee), near winter solstice, they covered a clay pot with feathers, dangled it over a statue of the god, then hit and broke it. This ceremony probably symbolized the rebirth of the sun and the defeat of winter.

That first year we kept it very simple: We decorated the ball with tempera paint sticks; I made the hole and added the string harness when he wasn't looking, and filled it with lollipops. 

His mom came at lunch time and we tied our piñata to the pop-up canopy in our backyard, and gave him a stick. 

Our party this year is scheduled for Thursday - today we will decorate the dry piñata shell.